Presenting the King Frederik VI Scholarship for Students of Serampore College

07.07.2017 11:58

To celebrate the upcoming 200th anniversary of Serampore College in 2018, the Danish Government has decided to grant a total of INR 1.800.000 to 18 outstanding students of Serampore College through the King Frederik VI Scholarship.

Serampore College was established in 1818, while the city of Serampore in West Bengal was a Danish trading post ruled by governors appointed by King Frederik VI.

“We’re very proud to announce the King Frederik VI Scholarship”, says Denmark’s ambassador to India, Mr. Peter Taksøe-Jensen. “The scholarship celebrates the legacy of Indo-Danish relations and seeks to promote access to quality education and encourage the academic pursuits of the students.”

“Serampore College has a long history with the Danish Government in the field of education and social transformation of India. The Danish Government - as it was in the beginning - has been very supportive to Serampore College educational mission till today and we are confident that the relationship will continue,” said Mr. Vanchhawng.

During the Danish rule, which lasted from 1755 to 1845, the governors of Serampore encouraged missionaries to develop their educational enterprise.

In 1818, Baptist missionaries established Serampore College with the wish to provide education to all students irrespective of their caste, colour and creed. In 1827 Frederik VI gave Serampore College a royal charter with university rights, making Serampore College the third university of Denmark after Copenhagen and Kiel.

A rich shared historyRecently, the Danish Ministry of Culture, the Realdania Fund, and the National Museum of Denmark have been working with Serampore College and other local institutions to restore the historic city center of Serampore. A number of buildings from the Danish period had fallen into disrepair, but since 2008, the so-called Serampore Initiative has been working to bring them back to former glory.

“India and Denmark have a rich shared history worth preserving”, says Mr. Taksøe-Jensen. “With the Frederik VI Scholarship, we wish to acknowledge that legacy, while supporting education and promoting cultural cooperation.”

The scholarships will be given in 2017 and 2018 to a total of 18 eligible students. 12 postgraduate students of Botany, Human Physiology and Zoology, and six undergraduate students of Arts, Science and Commerce will receive the scholarship.

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